Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-04-30
ON AN ICE BOAT:
A CORRESPONDENT GIVES A e'I
OF HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

skimming Across b lee n the hs'S .
Mile . Minute-A Trick ON . Passen'
ger travelling Faster Than the
Wind.
The Hudson river ice boats are genefalIy
| considered to be the handsomest and mos
| comfortable, although Madison, Wis, has
some excellent mes But the majority OF
those here are built by the native youths fof
their own use. and speed rather than beauty
or comfort is their aim. a they attain
this your correspondent can bear witness, Iof
he rode from Madison to the insane asylum
across lake Mendoza IA distance OF fully i've
miles, in five minutes, and, after the first
minute out, in view of the fact thai he had
undertaken such a trip, he made up his mind
that he was headed for the proper place
There are many pleasures IL Ice boating,
but sitting On the end OF a plank With your
arms wrapped around a stay and the wind
playing tag up and dow your spinal column
is not one Of them As the wind gains conf
dence, and playfully toys with your fingers
and toes, your enthusiasm for the sport rap
idly dies out. But then one dos not often
have to do this As a general thing he Will,
especially if stranger, be allowed to recline
beneath a protecting buffalo robe, while some
pretty Madison damsel tells him fairy tales
about the dangers of ice boating and yacht
ing, for, be it known, nothing pleases Q native
of this pretty little town more than to harrow
up the soul Of the u~nsuspecting visitor by
narratives that will give him the impression
that he is at any moment liable to be hurled
into eternity. But. though his cheek paled,
your correspondent, with that gallantry for
which Chicagoans are noted. informed his
fair companion that in such delightful COM
pany even a journey into eternity would be .
welcome pleasure, to which she quickly re-
sponded: ~Oh, but are you sure we would
travel together! Do you think you would 60
my way" Then your correspondent crawled
out Of his retirement to ask the captain If
there was anything he could do. The cap
tain evidently thought there was. for he gave
the boat q sudden swerve that sent your cor
respondent t~obogganing across the ice in very
much the same way that the youth had de-
the toboggan chute some hours be-
fore. He afterward apologized most humbly,
and explained hat he was obliged to make
the sudden change in his course on account Of
crack in the ice which he saw a little dis
TANGO ahead, but the fact that that crack was
cot visible to the naked eye is in itself sus-
picious. In short, it looked very much like
q put up job, and the information vouchssfed
BY another Madison youth that it is custom
ary to give strangers this unlocked for ride
did not make the explanation seem any more
TO PREvENT ACCIDENTS
Still these excursions are often taken as the
result Of accident, for the lake is scanned with
tracks just large enough to admit the runner. |
Of course if the boat strikes the crack at |
hight angles it will pass over without Diff
but if the captain inadvertently runs
I upon one at an angle of, say forry-fve de-
the course Of the boat will sometimes
be changed so suddenly as to send the whole !
,arty shooting across the ice. To avoid such |
accidents the skipper generally straps himself |
IN; but it is no uncommon thing, if he Is a
little careless in his sailing, to nave the bal
nee of the party leave him Unexpectedly. |
But, Of course, when ladies are aboard the
,~reatest care is taken to prevent such acct
Tents.
The speed attained by iceboats is remark
bile. With a favorable wind one of these
an travel at a rate that will make a limited
cypress train blush for very shame. 4 favor
bic wind. by the way, does not mean a wind
the stern: a wind on the beam is much
to that. With a stern wind the
oat, ct course, can travel no faster than the
ind, but with the wind from q more favor
BILE quarter it can. The uninitiated will doubt
his assertion, but it is true, and has been proved
. be so. If the uninitiated win stop to con-
der the fact that, except when running be-
ore the wind. the motion of the boat is made
y the wind sliding of the sails, not pushing
ON behind: that the iceboat is very light,
nd its friction in passing over the ice almost
they will see how it can travel faster
ian the force that propels it If the sail
oat was not retarded so much by friction
18th the water it could, OF the same tacks,
'avel at the same rate Of speed as the ice
cat. The wind was not making sixty miles
n Jour when your correspondent Travelled
ve miles in five minutes-Cor. Chicago